Talk:Council of Ministers
Privy Purse The Minister of the Privy Purse is also a member, no? I'm not sure if that post is still active. JAF1970 23:08, 25 November 2008 (UTC) *No idea - this is just what I found references to. If you have a citation, feel free to add it :) Yrfeloran 23:14, 25 November 2008 (UTC) ** It would be in Shards of Honor. I don't have it in front of me right now, and I'm not sure the Privy Purse was Ministrial or a subdivision of something else. JAF1970 23:33, 25 November 2008 (UTC) Expansion of the Minister's Council? Given that Barrayar has three planets now, and a host of other responsibilities, it would seem likely that the number of Ministers would have expanded in the time that passed between Shards of Honor/Barrayar and the present day. I know that there isn't any canonical, textual evidence for this, but is there anything in the mailing lists? And do we have any particular idea of what new ministries may have been created (For my own ideas, I think that a Ministry of Komarran Affairs seems very likely, as does a Ministry of Terraformation, and given what position Komarr holds, a Minister of Trade, independent of any other department, seems likely as well)? Westbrook (talk) 20:52, September 11, 2013 (UTC) I don't have any textev or Loisev, though there's been discussion on the list from time to time - she stays out of those conversations, probably so that she can keep her Shroedinger cat-carrier options open. I would want to see both of your first two choices and a Ministry of Interstellar Trade (almost your third one), preferably all three run by Komarrans eventually. She has spoken from time to time about the empire expanding around the Council of Counts - the empire grows and they don't - as a way of limiting their power, though. See: http://lists.herald.co.uk/pipermail/lois-bujold/2011-January/066378.html and http://lists.herald.co.uk/pipermail/lois-bujold/2011-June/076301.html for some of her discussion on that topic. KarenHunt (talk) 21:17, September 11, 2013 (UTC) Oh, clever way to put that-Schroedinger's cat. I like it as a shorthand description of a writer's process, very nice! The mailing list ideas were helpful as well, thank you. Anyways, we have seven confirmed Ministers, minus Political Education (Who I wonder if they got a vote in Council before they were ripped apart?), so thirteen canon spots are open. We have a Minister of the West, so it follows that there would be a respective Minister for the North, East and South (The last who might handle South Continent matters?), which is ten spots filled.. Considering the amount of things a government must do, there would be Ministers for: Galactic Affairs, Trade (Interstellar), Health, Education, and Labor. Likely a Ministry of Cultural Affairs, to help integrate all of the various components of society, handle sport and tourism, etc., a Ministry of Terraformation, probably a Ministry of Transportation as well. A Science Ministry is a maybe. Finally, a Ministry of Colonial Affairs, which I would think would deal with Komarr, Sergyar, whatever the Barrayaran equivalent of the Betan Astronomical Survey is, which the Komarran Affairs Ministry might be spun out of? That's twenty, plus whatever new departments might be created or separated out from those bureaucracies. Westbrook (talk) 05:21, September 12, 2013 (UTC) Schroedinger's cat-carrier is a great term, but I didn't invent it - it's one of Lois's own phrases. My internal list of potential ministers has some of those and: Light Industries (they got heavy ones, presumably there's light ones as well?), Colonization (ok, that's just renaming Colonial Affairs), and separate ones for Komarr and Sergyar. I do wonder how to put together their government in later generations. The Council of Counts is too big a piece of it right now, even if their own Council meetings are just for inter-Count matters. The Joint Council is dominated by them... Makes me want to give the Komarrans some five or so Ministries of their very own as well as the running of some trade-related ones, just to give them a better voice in the running of the government. KarenHunt (talk) 11:14, September 12, 2013 (UTC)